The prepaid electric meter: Rights, relationships and reification in Unguja, Tanzania

Abstract

TitleThe prepaid electric meter: Rights, relationships and reification in Unguja, Tanzania b s t r a c tSustainable Development Goal 7, with the light bulb and power button as its symbols, in effect promotes the universal right to basic electricity services. Access for all demands both affordability and costrecovery, and utilities (and donors) increasingly require users to shoulder the greater burden of costrecovery. We argue that the electricity system is underpinned by a set of relationships among user, provider and the service itself: these relationships are mediated by the meter, the technology of commodification. Using a constant-comparison approach, and based on a year of interviews and document analysis, we compare postpaid and prepaid meter regimes in Unguja, Tanzania. We ask: what difference does the mode of payment make to the (residential) user, the utility, and to the prospects for meeting SDG 7? We find that the prepaid meter becomes reified with its automated monitoring and measurement mechanism, rendering the once-familiar meter reader obsolete, and shutting off the flow of electricity as soon as the customer's ''units" have run down. Reification makes the utility more invisible to the customer, who now blames the meter rather than the utility for poor service or high bills. Our interviews reveal broad support for the prepaid meter, however, because economically vulnerable users expressed greater fear of debt than of the dark, and were willing to cede control of their consumption to the new meter. These findings undermine the common accusation of a ''culture of nonpayment" in Africa. We also find that prepaid meters may incentivize the partial return to biomass-based fuels when cash is not available -exactly the behavior that universal access to electricity is supposed to prevent. We conclude that, if access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa becomes entirely contingent on payment prior to use, this is not fully compatible with a commitment to universal basic access.

Power quality and modern energy for all

“…Our voltage measurements and household surveys show that having an electricity connection (i.e., access) is not at all the same as having a reliable or adequate electricity service (16). While rarely analyzed in the electricity and development literature, our work shows the many ways in which power quality and unreliability matter to low-income communities.…”

“…The Unguja grid reaches more than 50% of households (16). Financed in part by the Norwegian Development Agency and managed by the Zanzibar Electricity Corporation (ZECO), grid services in Unguja are described as unreliable (17).…”

Counting the cost: Coping with tariff increases amidst power supply shortfalls in urban households in Ethiopia

“…Finally, although deliberate sociotechnical transitions often imply a move towards a socially desirable end-state, technological changes also expose some communities to energy deprivation. For instance, a prepaid meter that is commended for enabling households to have control over their consumption is also seen to further entrench energy poverty among lower income households [40,41].…”

Design of Prepaid kWh-Meter Prototype Monitoring Based on Short Message Service (SMS)

“…'Dari hasil pengukuran alat tersebut menunjukkan berapa besar pemakaian listrik dalam jangka waktu tertentu sehingga petugas listrik dapat mengetahui besarnya pemakaian listrik yang nantinya akan diolah untuk mengetahui berapa besar biaya yang harus dikeluarkan'oleh pelanggan [9]. Dan juga pada saat pelanggan ingin mengetahui sisa saldo kWh tersebut, karena pelanggan masih harus melihat ke LCD kWh meter langsung.…”